R9 270X Crossfire - green static during gameplay, but doesn't show up in screenshots?

[XMan]

Any ideas? I'm seeing this with Besiege, Left 4 Dead 2 and Dead Island so far. Using the latest AMD drivers.

i7 3770K @ 4.0GHz, 16GB DDR3 1866, aforementioned Crossfire cards. Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 motherboard.

Update - definitely seems Crossfire-related as it doesn't occur when it's disabled.

 

[rc3ilynt]

I'd try raising the voltage or power limit if you're using afterburner.

 

[XMan]

Not using Afterburner at all, they should be running stock.

 

[biostud]

bad cf cable?

 

[XMan]

bad cf cable?

It was unused, has just been sitting in a box.

The cards are different brands, but that shouldn't matter, should it? Crossfire should lower the clocks on each to match, I thought.

 

[3DVagabond]

It was unused, has just been sitting in a box.

The cards are different brands, but that shouldn't matter, should it? Crossfire should lower the clocks on each to match, I thought.

No it doesn't matter different brands or clocks. There is no need for the speeds to be synced either.

 

[XMan]

Took a pic with my phone. Screenshots with RAPTR don't show the defect.

 

[Termie]

Try each card individually in the system.

You may have a bad second card - probably VRAM.

Also, specify your monitor, resolution, cable type, and refresh rate. The fact that it doesn't show up in screenshots suggests it could be occurring after it's output from the video card.

This has nothing to do with voltage, overclock, or power limit, by the way, and I doubt it's the CF connector, although that's possible.

 

[XMan]

Try each card individually in the system.

You may have a bad second card - probably VRAM.

Also, specify your monitor, resolution, cable type, and refresh rate. The fact that it doesn't show up in screenshots suggests it could be occurring after it's output from the video card.

This has nothing to do with voltage, overclock, or power limit, by the way, and I doubt it's the CF connector, although that's possible.

My monitor is an Asus VS278Q, using the HDMI cable, 1920x1080 @ 60hz.

Neither card exhibits the issue solo, I have also swapped them to different slots just to be sure. The slots are set to PCIE3 in BIOS and are running at 8x per CPU-Z.

Try another cable? I think I have one around here somewhere . . .

EDIT - tried a DVI-HDMI cable, same defect.

 

[Termie]

My monitor is an Asus VS278Q, using the HDMI cable, 1920x1080 @ 60hz.

Neither card exhibits the issue solo, I have also swapped them to different slots just to be sure. The slots are set to PCIE3 in BIOS and are running at 8x per CPU-Z.

Try another cable? I think I have one around here somewhere . . .

EDIT - tried a DVI-HDMI cable, same defect.

OK, sounds like you've tried just about everything.

Both cards, both slots, and multiple cables all function independently. The Crossfire cable may be the culprit.

Are there any games in which you do not see the defect? How about 3DMark? And what about performance - is it as expected, other than the defect?

 

[XMan]

Yeah performance seems all right. I just ran 3D Mark, it's definitely there as well. Performance seems pretty good even with everything maxed out @ 1080p, I just can't stand to look at it for long because of the flicker.

3D Mark with both cards is about 50-60 fps for the Fire benchmark, half of that after I pulled one of the cards.

 

[wilds]

What about testing each card individually while both are seated?

Any additional distortion if you gently wiggle the ends of the cable connecting to the GPU and Monitor?

 

[XMan]

Somehow it's working. I flip-flopped the cards during testing and now it's . . . okay? I dunno.

Got a Crossfire cable on the way just case. Craziness, LOL.

Edit/final update.

It started crashing to desktop in Besiege with the old Crossfire cable, tried the new one and same issue. After doing some research my power supply may just not be up to the task. It's a High-Current Gamer 620W with non-modular cables. Only has two dedicated PCIe power jacks so I have to use the molex-PCIe adapters. I noticed that if I plug one dedicated PCIe power cable into each card along with one Molex it will work relatively stable for a while. If I have one card on dedicated jacks and the other on Molex adapters it will mess up. So throwing in the towel on the Crossfire project. :\ At least the new motherboard I bought to run 8x/8x PCIe overclocks my 3770K better than my old one, heh.